


Owl's Story

by Givralix



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Cassandra uses he/him pronouns, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Themes, Non-binary Cassandra, Non-binary lesbian Cassandra, Nonbinary Character, Teenage Cassandra, Trans Character, warning for (accidental) misgendering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:07:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26797825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Givralix/pseuds/Givralix
Summary: While accompanying his father on a patrol, Cassandra finds himself a new friend.
Relationships: Cassandra & Owl (Disney: Tangled)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7





	Owl's Story

Cassandra was quietly, carefully climbing a tree, eyes on his goal: a baby owl, resting on a branch. The second he had seen the bird, he knew he had to get a closer look; chances like this did not come often. He stopped a few feet away, and gazed.

Owls were his favorite kind of bird to watch, although they were hard to find. Most of them lived deep into the forest, and only came out at night. This specifically was a time and place that Cassandra had explicitly been forbidden from by his father, but the man didn't ever have to find out about what Cassandra was up to to while he was busy, right?

This time, though, Cassandra didn't go that far. It was daytime, and the tree was on the very edge of the forest, close to the village that the captain was visiting that day. And the baby owl was right there, resting, its chest rising and lowering with every breath, so majestic...

"Watch out!", a young voice cried out. A ball hit the trunk hard, sending Cassandra to scramble for a hold. He poked his head out of the tree and noticed a younger kid, running from the village towards the tree.

"Hey miss, can you send my ball back?", they said, as they stopped.

His grip on the tree tightened. "What the hell is wrong with you?! You could've hurt the owl!"

"What owl?" Cassandra looked back up to the branch and paled. The owl had left. "Uh, miss, I'm sorry, I just want my ball back..."

"Ugh, fine!" He angrily started climbing up to the branch where the ball got stuck. "Here's your stupid ball! And stop calling me _that_!", he said as he threw the ball back down, glaring at the child.

They caught the ball. "Then what can I call you?"

"Uh." Cassandra's anger suddenly dissolved as he reflected. His father was investigating an incident, far from earshot. In fact, there didn't seem to be anyone close by, beside the kid, who seemed both young and old enough to keep this secret. And this village was still fairly big; meeting them again would be unlikely. Plus, Cassandra and his father would be leaving early the next morning. It was risky, but just like the baby owl, opportunities like this were rare.

So Cassandra put on his bravest face and nervously said, "My name's Cassandra, but it's a secret, so you can't tell anyone, OK? If you see me in the village, you can't call me that."

"Cool, a secret name! How'd you earn it, are you a knight or something?", the child said, excited.

Cassandra felt a bit of relief and smiled. "I guess you could say that. But remember, this is a secret name, and I'm a secret knight. You can't tell anyone, ever."

The kid bowed. "Thank you, Knight Cassandra. Your secret is forever safe with me.", they said very seriously, before getting up and running back to the village.

Cassandra hoped that the sudden spike of anxiety he felt as the child said his name hadn't shown too much. His heart was pounding hard, but he had felt worse before. Each attempt to tell someone about his real name brought on a mix of feeling like he was doing horribly wrong, fear of being found out, and inexpressible happiness. And with each attempt, however few there were, those feelings ever so slightly decreased, letting a fourth appear: normality, in a way he never felt when he was called his birth name. Cassandra was _right_.

He stayed still in the tree, waiting for himself to calm down. But before he felt ready to come down, something landed on his forearm. The baby owl.

Maybe Cassandra could stay still a little longer.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey haha, I could barely find any fanfics with non-binary Cassandra and I'm projecting a lot. I hope you liked this!


End file.
